In 2008 I organised a 48-hour film competition. It went well, especially considering it was put together on zero budget and six weeks notice. Now…

Film Dash is back!

It’ll happen over the weekend of 5-7 March 2010. Here’s the deal:

Write, cast, shoot, and edit a short film in 48 hours. If you’ve got a camera – even one on a mobile phone –
you’ve got all you need to make a film. You don’t need any experience to join in with Film Dash and it’s FREE to enter.

This year’s theme is ‘happiness’, so get thinking; what makes you happy? But remember – you’ll be given a prop, a character, or even a line of dialogue to include in your film, so don’t have too much prepared!

Also: Prizes! Judges! The chance for your film to be shown all over the place!

Register your team here.

You can get info and updates on Twitter and Facebook. Subscribe to Film Dash on YouTube to see the films as they’re produced.

Here’s the poster, designed by the good people of Supercool:

And here’s the winning entry from 2008 – Dunkirk by Team TTV.

Dunkirk from Pete Ashton on Vimeo.

I was more than chuffed with how it all went.  Three times as many teams entered than I had cautiously hoped for and the quality of the films was astounding.

I’ve rounded up links to all the films on the Film Dash website and I really do recommend checking them out, they’re all under 5 minutes so it won’t take that long.

The judging panel (which didn’t include myself, thankfully) picked a winner and that is the excellent ‘Dunkirk’ by Team TTV:

Dunkirk from Pete Ashton on Vimeo.

There’s a very good chance I’ll be organising something again next year.  Details to be confirmed/dreamt up later, but it was too fun not to do again.  If you want to get on the Film Dash mailing list just email ‘SUBSCRIBE’ to filmdash@gmail.com.

The essence of the idea is this:

• On Friday 17 October film makers will be told the criteria for their short film
• Teams (or individuals) will have 48 hours to script/shoot/edit/whatever their films
• On Sunday 19 October the films that make the deadline will be screened

The other details for the challenge are still coming together.  Over the coming weeks there will be annoucements as to the screening venue, the rules and perhaps even information about judges and prizes.

The competition is meant to be all-inclusive and fun.  It doesn’t matter whether you’ve got a stack of expensive camera equipment or just a mobile phone to film on and remember – experience is no match for a good idea.  This is all about imagination, playfulness and telling a story.

Information about the challenge can be found on the Film Dash blog.

Everyone who wants to take part needs to email SUBSCRIBE to filmdash@gmail.com so I can confirm details and get some idea of how many people are planning to get involved.

You can also join the Facebook Group and follow the Film Dash Twitter.